Afrotropical Streams and Rivers

Dr Tatenda Dalu is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biology and Environmental Sciences and Leader of the Aquatic Systems Research Group at University of Mpumalanga, Honorary Research Associate at the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, and a member of the Alien Species Risk Assessment Review Panel of South Africa and British Ecological Society Grants Committee. He is a United Nations Global Environment Outlook 7 Contributing Author, Associate Editor for Aquatic Invasions, African Journal of Ecology, BioInvasions Records, Ecology and Evolution and Frontiers in Water – Environmental Water Quality, and Editorial Board Member for Science of the Total Environment and Environmental Advances. He has Guest Edited for Frontiers in Water and Frontiers in Environmental Science. He is an expert in freshwater riverine, wetland and reservoir ecosystems mainly using phytoplankton, invertebrates, and fish as study organisms. He has previously co-edited two books for Elsevier on Fundamentals of Tropical Freshwater Wetlands: From Ecology to Conservation Management and Emerging Freshwater Pollutants: Analysis, Fate, and Regulation. Working with fellow research colleagues, Dr Dalu has identified and described two new species in South Africa (Copepod Lovenula raynerae) and Zimbabwe (Fairy shrimp Streptocephalus sangoensis). Dr Frank Masese is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Science at University of Eldoret, Kenya, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. He is a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow and a Member of the Editorial Boards of Freshwater Biology, International Review of Hydrobiology, PLoS ONE and PeerJ. He has Guest Edited for Hydrobiologia, Frontiers in Water and Frontiers in Environmental Science. His research interests lie mainly in biodiversity assessments, ecosystem ecology and aqueous biogeochemistry, with a focus on riverine ecosystems. His studies straddle the terrestrial-aquatic domain, where he seeks to understand how landscape variables and human activities shape aquatic ecosystem structure and functioning. Working with fellow researchers, Dr Masese is in the final stages of developing a biological criterion for monitoring surface waters in Kenya.

• 1. African streams and rivers: an introductionSECTION I: MAJOR RIVER SYSTEMS AND ASSOCIATED TRIBUTARIES2. Major African river systems and their associated tributaries: An overview3. Rivers of Southern Africa4. Rivers of East Africa5. Rivers of the Congo River Basin in Central Africa6. Rivers of West Africa7. Rivers of North AfricaSECTION II: PHYSICAL STRUCTURE AND ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES8. Erosion and Accretion – Landscape Sculpting by Water9. African River Hydrology10. Physico-chemical environment11. River riparian zones in sub-Saharan Africa: Processes, functions, and sustainability12. Organic matter and nutrient dynamics13. Primary production and ecosystem metabolism14. Terrestrial-aquatic connectivitySECTION III: BIOTA15. Microbial and phytoplankton dynamics in freshwater rivers16. Macrophytes17. Macroinvertebrates18. Fishes of Southern Africa19. Birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians20. Food web dynamicsSECTION IV: MANAGEMENT, CONSERVATION AND THREATS21. River management and governance22. Rivers and people23. Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Change24. Restoring freshwater ecosystems: lessons from case studies on riparian vegetation, aquatic weeds and freshwater fish25. Anthropogenic threats26. Woody plants encroachment and impacts on streamflow recharge in arid and semi–arid environments27. Advances in Biomonitoring in Africa28. Environmental flows29. Overview and future prospects of African rivers research